Shock
by Cloud Wolfe
Summary: ON HOLD. I haven't updated in so long I decided to get rid of my account on here. Only I don't know how. Fanfictions really aren't my priority, so I'll keep this up, but I'm not going to be working on it. Sorry, guys.
1. prologue

William Denver was a family man long before he was the villain King Kamehamayhem. He grew up going to a good school for heroes and graduated with honors. Two years after graduation he got married to Adele Travis, a pretty, nice girl only a year younger than him. They had two beautiful baby girls, and for years they lived happily in Hawaii.

He taught his younger daughter Lea how to swim before he taught her to walk, and she was surfing the smaller waves by the time she was six. His other daughter Lainei, older by a year, was more often found in the kitchen with her mother, learning to cook, and she was only ever fond of the water, never loving it like Lea did.

When his daughters were eight and nine, respectively, William started to spend more time with a very power conscious group. Before long, he was too was starting to discriminate, cutting ties with his sidekick acquaintances and only talking to civilians to keep up appearances.

The marriage went down the drain swiftly, and in less than a year Adele Denver became Adele Travis once more. A battle for custody over the children occurred, with both parties fighting to keep Lainei and completely ignoring Lea, saying the other could have her if they could retain custody of her sister.

Their reasons were different, but no less selfish. Adele had always favored Lainei, the perfect little girl, who preferred to tan on the beach rather than surf unlike her sister and never got filthy, also unlike Lea.

For a long time, William had favored Lea, who had a wild streak to match his own, but when his views on power changed and Lea remained powerless while Lainei gained a power that would make her an automatic hero he started to favor Lainei more.

The fight for custody lasted a long time, but in the end William got Lainei and Adele got Lea. The arrangements lasted for two years, until King Kamehamayhem caused a volcano to explode and was caught and put in jail by the Commander and Jetstream.

As soon as she had custody of both her children, Adele Travis moved the three of them to suburban, superhero filled Maxville, where she was sure both of her children would have a good influence and not be inclined to follow in the footsteps of their villain father.

Lea embraced Maxville somewhat tentatively- it took half an hour to walk to the beach the first time she tried it, and all the neighbors were overly cheerful and seemingly perfect. Her mother and sister fit in wonderfully, but the wild tomboy had trouble adjusting. The only upside was that no one knew who they really were and accepted the story that Adele's husband was dead.

Adele managed to get enough money to send first Lainei, and then Lea, to Sky High. Lainei became a hero easily, made a bunch of friends, and got perfect grades. Lea's freshman year went a little differently...


	2. Enter Leah Travis

Leah was sitting on the counter, watching the TV, when Lainei finally came downstairs. She'd been waiting for ten minutes, but she still didn't acknowledge her sister when she walked past her, blocking her view of the screen for a split second as she made her way to the refrigerator to get a glass of orange juice.

Leah's eyes weren't glued to a silly cartoon or a show with a hot guy in it- she was watching the news. No one else her age seemed half as interested as her in watching the news, something that intrigued her. Leah always wanted to know what was going on- she had an inquiring mind that needed to know. Of course, Lainei just said she was nosy.

The Commander and Jetstream had just showed up to defeat the giant robot that was terrorizing downtown Maxville, and Leah didn't want to miss a minute of it. The Commander punched the robot, and Leah watched in awe as it fell backwards with the Commander still standing on its' chest.

The camera man zoomed in on the Commander pulling out the robot's eye, and the reporter butted in with, "And he's plucking out a souvenir from yet another successful mission!" Leah rolled her eyes and waited a second longer, but nothing else happened, so she grabbed the remote, clicked the TV off, and jumped down off the counter.

"It doesn't make sense," Leah murmured to herself as she grabbed her backpack and walked to the door. She leaned against it and watched Lainei walk around the kitchen, eating a half a bagel with low-fat cream cheese and sipping at her orange juice.

She would never understand Lainei, Leah thought to herself. After they'd moved to California, Leah had changed her name from Lea Denver to Leah Travis. Lainei, however, had refused to change her name, and still went by Lainei Denver. Why, Leah would never know.

Their father was a villain, in jail for the next two lifetimes, and didn't have any chance of parole until halfway through his third lifetime. The fact that Lainei would willing keep his last name puzzled Leah.

Lea wasn't pronounced any differently than Leah, but she liked the way it was spelled better and she didn't want to be associated with her villain father, not that anyone would ever make the connection.

King Kamehamayhem had been put in jail five years ago, when Leah was nine, and it had all happened in Hawaii anyway. Only those closely associated with putting him away still remembered enough about him to know his Christian name, or that he had two daughters.

Leah shook her head, and went back to analyzing the robot attack. Having it attack downtown she could understand- there were more people there, heading to work or already working, but the seeming anonymity of it all? Villains were egomaniacs- that was why they were villains.

King Kamehamayhem had been one, Leah knew. He was her father, after all, and even before he'd become a villain he was a very proud man. Practically every single villain Leah could think of wanted to let the whole world know who they were, what they planned on doing to take it over, and why they wanted to do so.

It just didn't make sense. Was it all a distraction? Was there a villain out there, killing thousands of people, while the Commander and Jetstream fought their little robot? Or their giant robot, as it quite obviously was?

How did they even get beaten giant robots out of the middle of town, anyway? Did the Commander and Jetstream fly it to a giant robot junkyard? Leah laughed softly to herself and shook her head.

"What are you laughing at?" Lainei asked crossly.

Leah's smile faded slightly as she looked at her sister, and she shook her head. "Nothing. I was just thinking about what they do with giant robots after the heroes beat them..."

Lainei stared at her, uncomprehending, and then shook her head. "Whatever. Weirdo," she added under her breath, but Leah heard her anyway, and her smile dropped. Lainei could at least pretend they got along, couldn't she? Maybe then pretend would become reality, and Leah would get what she wanted- a whole family.

"Are you ready?" Lainei asked rudely. "I'm tired of waiting. God. I don't want to miss the bus on my first day because of you, so let's go." She grabbed her small bag and brushed past Leah, who was still leaning against the doorway.

Leah gave the kitchen one last look before she turned around and followed Lainei out the door, locking it on her way out. Their mother was already at work, having wished Lainei goodbye and telling Leah to behave like she always did.

Lainei walked to the bus stop swiftly with Leah tagging along behind her at a more leisurely pace, occasionally running to catch up. Lainei stopped abruptly, but Leah didn't see her, and, jumping over a crack in the sidewalk, bumped into her sister.

"Watch it!" Lainei snarled. Leah backed up and mumbled an apology, staring at her feet to make sure she didn't back up onto any cracks. She wasn't always so careful, but she needed something to distract herself from the slightly nervous feeling she got whenever she thought about going to a school for superheroes, and one her sister went to at that.

A normal looking yellow school bus screeched around the corner and skidded to a halt in front of Lainei and Leah. Lainei stepped forward, paused, and looked over her shoulder at Leah. "This is the sophomore bus," she said in a slightly nicer voice than before. "You'll have to wait five or ten minutes for the freshman bus, alright? And whatever you do, please don't embarrass me by telling anyone we're related."

Leah, who wasn't sure if Lainei was joking or not, gave her a tentative smile and nodded. Lainei nodded in satisfaction and got on the bus. She was immediately greeted by most of the heroes and a handful of the braver sidekicks, and Leah sighed as the bus took off. Now to wait.

Two minutes later Leah couldn't take standing still any longer, and pulled a piece of chalk out of her pocket. She bent over and drew a square, then another, slowly forming a hopscotch path thingy on the ground.

Satisfied, Leah back away, jumped up once, and then tossed the chalk onto her drawing. Smiling happily to herself, she hopped over to the chalk, one foot, two feet, one foot, two feet, picked it up, spun around, and almost fell over.

Two people were standing in front of her, staring, and Leah slowly turned red. One of them was a brunette boy with a long sleeved white shirt on under a purple-blue button up shirt he hadn't bothered to open. The other was a tall, pretty black girl with her hair in a bunch of braids and flip-flops with little white flowers on the straps.

"I like your shoes," Leah announced, pointing at the black girls shoes. The girl looked down and then back up at Leah, and smiled. "I like yours, as well," she said. Leah grinned. Her shoes were exactly the same as the black girls, only they were blue rather than white.

"I'm Natasha," the black girl told her. "Do you go to Sky High?"

Leah nodded enthusiastically, and grinned. She had found her first friend. "My name's Leah. What's your power?"

The brunette boy butted in, glaring at Natasha. "You idiot! What if she didn't go to Sky High, huh? You know you're not supposed to just come out and ask that! What if someone heard you?"

Natasha rolled her eyes conspiratorially at Leah and jerked her thumb at the boy. "You'll have to forgive him. He's a little anxious, because his power sucks, and he doesn't want him mom on his case for making sidekick."

Leah grimaced in understanding. "I know what you mean. Well, my mom already knows I'm going to make sidekick, and she doesn't care anyway, but my dad was pretty disappointed I didn't develop any powers by the time I was eight."

Natasha cocked her head. "What happened that he hasn't been around since you did develop powers?" She asked curiously. The brunette boy, who Leah still didn't have a name for, watched her, also curious.

"My parents split up when I was nine, and then he died a couple years later." Leah explained emotionlessly. He wasn't dead, but that was the line they fed everyone, because it was easier. Only Lainei refused to say he was dead. She didn't tell anyone he was in jail, but she wouldn't say he was dead, either.

Natasha's hand flew to her mouth, and her eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said. The brunette looked at her sympathetically, and Leah shrugged. It didn't really bother her that much anymore, because she'd had years to get used to it and accept the fact that her dad just didn't care.

"It's okay," she told Natasha. "It doesn't really bother me much anymore. So-" Another yellow bus pulled up to the stop in a much less volatile manner than the first, but still with some squealing of tires. Natasha looked over at the bus, and smiled eagerly. "This is it, guys!" she said, excited.

"She must have a pretty good power, if she's that eager to get to school," Leah commented to the boy as she walked past him, following Natasha onto the bus.

He shook his head and followed her. "Not really. She's going to be a sidekick, everyone knows it, but it doesn't really matter that much to her. She's just eager to get there. It doesn't matter to her if she's a sidekick or a hero, so long as she gets to go."

Leah shook her head admiringly, and looked at him sideways as he paused to give the bus driver his name. "Liam McAllister?" she asked. He looked back at her and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Liam," Leah said, sticking her hand out and smiling.

Liam looked into her eyes for a second before he stuck out his own hand and shook hers. He didn't smile, but he didn't look like the kind of guy that smiled a lot anyway, so Leah didn't take it personally.

Natasha sat down beside a blond girl wearing an outfit that reminded Leah strongly of a cheerleader's uniform, so Leah sat down in a window seat in front of her, and Liam sat beside her. The bus took off again, and Leah looked out the window for a minute before a tap on the shoulder made her turn around.

"This is Michelle," Natasha said, introducing the girl next to her. Leah looked over at her and smiled, nodding. "Michelle, this is Leah. So what are your powers, you two? I can talk to birds, isn't that cool? I love talking to them. I wish I could talk to other animals, but oh well. I don't really mind it that much. My brother's girlfriend's miniature poodle makes me glad I can't talk to it, actually. He's a total snob."

Leah raised her eyebrows and smiled. Natasha was really excited. "You'll have to wait for power placement to see my power," Michelle said, turning to look back out the window. Leah looked to Natasha, who was playing with one of her numerous braids, and Liam, who was looking back at her expectantly.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Leah said, shrugging. "It's not that great, really. What about you, Liam?"

Liam sighed deeply and sucked further down in his seat as he did it, slouching and looking at the seat in front of him bad temperedly. "I can turn into a salt shaker," he said, depressed. "Or a pepper grinder. Or anything little, really, just nothing useful. Or not useful unless you want to sneak me through customs."

Leah giggled, and Liam gave her a dirty look. "Sorry," she said. "It's just, that's kinda funny, that's all. I could have you turn into a little china cat and bring you with me to Europe or something." Liam gave her another dirty look and went back to staring at the back of the seat in front of him.

Leah looked back out the window just in time to watch the bus come to a stop and let on a couple more kids- another brunette boy wearing similar clothing to what Liam was wearing, only his button up shirt was blue plaid rather purple-blue plaid, and a red headed girl wearing a green shirt.

"Is this the bus to Sky High?" The boy asked once he'd gotten on the bus. The bus driver slammed the doors shut and started in on the kid.

Leah couldn't hear what the bus driver said, but a minute later he was holding the kid by the shoulders and calling everyone's attention to him. "-Will Stronghold, son of the Commander and Jetstream." He was saying when Leah finally paid attention. He turned to the two kids in the seat behind him and tried to kick them out, but Will said he didn't need to.

After a second's debate, Will and the girl walked past to a seat where an unusually tall kid wearing white and yellow greeted him. Leah stopped paying attention after that until the driver announced that they were going off road. She looked around, puzzled. She didn't recognize wherever it was they were, and neither did anyone else, apparently.

Straps shot down over her shoulders and crossed over her body, clicking into place, and a bar popped up in front of her and Liam. Leah grabbed it with one hand, trying to stand up enough to see out the front of the bus, but she couldn't. She was slightly above medium height at 5'5 ½'', but all she could see was sky.

Leah let out a small 'eek' of surprise when she finally thought to look out the window and saw that they were heading strait for the end of a bridge that was still in construction. The eek turned into possibly the third scream Leah had let out in her entire life as the bus rocketed off the edge and did a few heart stopping loops in mid-air.

Five minutes later, a small, thin cloud moved out of the way to reveal a school floating among several other small, thin clouds, thousands of feet above Maxville. The bus driver, whose name Leah still wasn't sure of, gave them all an introduction to the school, and they pulled forward slowly, making to land on the spot obviously made for just that purpose.

The landing was bumpier than some of the back roads Leah remembered going down in Hawaii, and she grabbed at the straps holding her down, more thankful of them now that she had been when they were flying. Everyone filed off the bus after the driver, who had claimed to be Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, gave Will Stronghold a card with his name on it and made vaguely disturbing call me movements.

Leah couldn't help but think that he looked like he was trying to pick Will up, and she snickered to herself as she climbed down the steps. As soon as she saw all the people, though, Leah stopped dead. Half of them were sidekicks, she reminded herself.

But there were so many... She never would have thought that there were that many heroes. Of course, Maxville was crawling with heroes, it was one of the most heavily hero populated cities in the world, but still...

Leah followed the rest of the freshman towards the school, feeling apprehensive. Just before they got to the stairs, a blur came out of nowhere and raced around the freshman. They all clumped together instinctively, and Leah rolled her eyes and squirmed uncomfortably at the closeness of so many people.

The blue stopped moving and showed itself to be a fat boy, standing next to a taller, thinner boy dressed in the same color scheme of black and white. The taller one started talking, then let the fat one talk, and then took up the thread again to demand fifteen dollars. Leah rolled her eyes. How stupid did they think they were?

A pretty girl in a stupid looking pink jacket came up and took over. Leah's attention had drifted again for the millionth time, and she stared out at the sky dreamily, wishing she was at the beach, surfing. She was shaken out of her daze when Michelle tapped her on the shoulder. "You'd better follow us," she said, and Leah did, still daydreaming.

Leah walked into the gym and looked around, unimpressed. A bright white comet flew past, and Leah ducked along with everyone else to avoid getting hit. It turned into the principal, who gave the typical speech, welcoming them to Sky High and saying how wonderful it would be. Leah rolled her eyes, but watched in fascination as the comet flew away. It really was cool looking...

As she turned to watch it go, her eye caught on a platform that hadn't been there when they had walked in, and Leah turned around all the way to look at it. Out of the center rose a man with dark brown hair, a blue jacket, and short white shorts. He was the gym teacher, obviously.

"Okay, listen up. My name is Coach Boomer. You may know me as Sonic Boom, you may not. Here's how this is going to work. You will step up in here, and yes you will do so in front of the entire class." Leah swallowed and once again, zoned out. In front of the entire class? She had to humiliate herself in front of the entire class?


	3. The Big Shocker

Leah almost missed it when she was called. She was one of the last ones- she'd paid only enough attention to know that her new friends had all gotten sidekick. Lunch had been alright- she'd sat with Natasha, Liam, and Michelle, who Liam had seemed oddly fixed on.

Leah had a feeling he was developing a crush, but it was still in the infant stage, so she didn't say anything. Given time, though, he'd be madly in love with her, and Leah would be dancing up and down on the sidelines, cackling.

Boomer stared at her, as her dreamy ocean blue eyes snapped back to reality and she looked at him politely. He rolled his eyes, and Leah walked up to the stage, bunny hopping up the steps.

The people in the class that were paying attention- her new friends and a couple others with nothing better to do- snickered to each other.

"Please demonstrate your power," Boomer droned. Leah frowned. He was awfully rude to the sidekicks, and she didn't look forward to having this middle aged idiot make fun of her, but she had to do it.

Leah held up her hands and rubbed them together. Instantly, sparks started to shoot out of them, flying into the air. Leah held her hands up in front of her, showing them to Boomer. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Lightning?" he asked doubtfully. Leah shrugged. "Yes or no?" he snapped.

"They're sparks," Leah said flatly, her good mood gone and her temper short. Her sister ragged on her all the time, telling her what a useless power she had, and her mom didn't ever contradict her. She had a useless power and she knew it, and she wasn't in the mood to have Boomer tell her so too.

"Sidekick," he announced, rolling his eyes again. Leah gave him a nasty look and walked off to the back of the room. Asshole. His power was pathetic as he was, she thought meanly. And he looked down on her!

Leah pulled her mp3 player out of her pants pocket and stuffed the ear buds into her ears. She flicked through it, looking for a good song, and found 1985 by Bowling for Soup. She hummed inaudibly to herself, trying to wash Boomer out of her mind.

If she allowed him to get her down this early in the week, she'd be a downright bitch and lose all her friends by the time Friday rolled around. Monday was always her best day of the week, right after she'd spent the whole weekend surfing, and Friday was the worst, after she'd spent an entire week on school shit and listening to family.

Natasha wandered over eventually, and turned and waved to Michelle and Liam, who wandered over slowly. "We're all sidekicks," Liam said gloomily, as if he hadn't expected it.

Leah pulled the earphones out of her ears and raised her eyebrows. "I said we're all sidekicks," Liam repeated. Michelle sighed gloomily, and Leah's lips twitched. For someone in a color coordinated cheerleader like outfit, Michelle was awfully gloomy.

"What did you expect?" Leah asked, shrugging. She put one ear bud back in her ear and switched the song to Baba O'Riley by the Who. She loved the piano at the beginning- it was awesome, in her opinion. "We all knew we'd be sidekicks before we even got on the bus, which is why we're all talking to each other now. Because we're losers, but we're losers together."

Natasha laughed and rolled her eyes, and Liam and Michelle gave almost identical sighs. "Oh, cheer up," Natasha ordered. "I don't mind being a sidekick. It would be nice to save the world, but who cares? Maybe I'll just dump my hero after graduation and get a whole bunch of crime fighting gizmos and beat all the villains with those!"

Leah shrugged and picked up the other ear bud from where it was dangling next to her hip. "Maybe," she said just before she went back to the wonderful world of music. Power placement took until the bell rang at the end of the day, and Leah spent most of her time singing along with the music in her head and snatching bits of the conversation her friends were having- whether they agreed or disagreed with Boomer's placement of the rest of their class.

"I feel sorry for Will," Natasha commented as the little group walked down the steps and made their way to their bus. "Imagine having parents that are the greatest superheroes in the world and not having any powers yourself. They must be so disappointed."

"Who cares?" Liam interrupted. "I mean, it's not like we've got it any better. I don't know about you, but I'm going to kill my mom when she finds out I'm a sidekick. She so hoped I'd be a hero like her, and I'm going to have to tell her I didn't make it."

Michelle nodded. "My dad wanted me to be a hero," she said, probably the first personal thing she'd said all day, not to mention the longest. "But I think he knew I wouldn't make it. I mean, a ball? What use is that?"

Leah shrugged. "At least it doesn't hurt, when you're a ball," she commented. "Boomer kicked you halfway across the gym and you just bounced back up- literally. And think of it this way- if some villain was after you in a toy store, you could change into a ball. Me, I'd have to pretend I was baby sitting some little brat who knew I wasn't his mother."

Natasha laughed quietly, and Michelle smirked in amusement. "True," she mused. "But what if some kid bought me?"

Leah shrugged. "Let him take you home and hope like hell he has a hot older brother?" she asked jokingly. Michelle even laughed a little at that, and Leah grinned. She loved to make people happy. Pleasing people was one of her few ambitions, mostly because it seemed like she could never please her mother.

"You do lightening bolts, right?" Liam asked, frowning thoughtfully to himself as he got on the bus and walked towards the back. "What do they do?"

"What do you mean?" Leah asked, frowning herself as she thought about his question.

"Well, do they hurt, or are they just a light jolt? Is it like sticking a fork in the electric socket, or- or licking a battery or something?" Liam sounded doubtful, and Leah laughed.

"I think you must be my long lost twin," she mused. "Our names sound alike, we both like the color blue, and we both have minds that work in odd ways." Leah grinned at Liam and plopped down in a seat next to Natasha as Michelle walked past and sat behind them.

Liam frowned jokingly and sat down next to Michelle. Leah highly doubted he knew she'd done it on purpose, but he shifted uncomfortably for a second before he shrugged and relaxed. Leah sighed in her mind, wishing she was as calm as he was around the people she liked.

But then, maybe he wasn't as calm as he seemed. After all, her old friend had told her that she would never have guessed that Leah liked her old crush if Leah hadn't said something, while Leah always felt she was totally obvious in watching him walk past in the halls and glancing at him every five minutes at lunch.

"So, does it hurt or not?" Liam prodded. Leah snapped out of her daydream and turned around halfway, looking at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"Huh?" she asked stupidly. Natasha and Michelle snickered, and Liam rolled his eyes.

"The sparks," he reminded her. "Do they hurt, or not?"

"Oh," Leah sighed. She hated her power. It was so useless. Sometimes it was cool, and it kept people she didn't want touching her away, but mostly it was just there, too useless to use. "If I want it to."

"What do you-" Leah cut Liam off by jerking around and flinging her arm up, flicking her fingers in his face. A small current of electricity ran off each finger and hit Liam. He stopped in mid sentence and his eyes went wide as he seemed to shake slightly.

"Wow," he breathed when the sparks were gone. Leah hadn't hurt him- he was her friend, after all, even if she barely knew him. The electricity had been as soothing as she could make it, which meant that it wasn't painful, but it was still electricity. Liam's hair was standing on end, and his mouth dropped open as the power went through his system.

Leah smiled in understanding. It was so invigorating, being shocked like that. It was like you were more alive, somehow. She'd never gotten shocked by her own lightening- that was impossible- but she had felt electricity before, and she loved the way it felt.

"What's it like?" Michelle asked curiously. Leah shrugged. What was she supposed to say? If she wanted it to hurt it was like being stabbed with a thousand tiny needles, if she wanted it to be gentle it was merely a rush of energy flowing through you, making your entire body tingle with it.

"It's weird," Liam said after a long pause in which no one said anything. "It hurts, but- it's like you're so-"

"Alive?" Leah offered. "Like every nerve is as aware as it's ever been, like your entire body is humming with the energy?"

Liam nodded vigorously. "Yeah," he breathed. Leah smiled slightly, even though something was bothering her. "It makes the pain not really matter much," he added, and Leah frowned.

"It doesn't hurt," she protested. "It can't. If I want it to hurt, it does, but that's not painful, that's when it's just energy running through you."

Liam frowned slightly. "Yeah, it does," he told her slowly. "Not much, but it is a little bit painful. Not much, but a little bit."

Leah scowled at the back of the seat in front of her. "I know the difference between painful and not," she muttered. Liam sighed behind her, and Leah suppressed a sigh of her own. She didn't want to piss her friends off. If that was something about herself she didn't particularly like, it was that she was too dependent. Of course, others said she was very independent, but Leah always felt like she went out of her way not to piss off what few friends she was able to make.

But still, she knew what it meant when lightening hurt- she'd gotten hit once, hadn't she? Until then she hadn't known the difference in what she did, she had just had sparks, but after the lightening hit her, she could control whether it hurt or not. She could make it painful for anyone who felt they could treat her any way they pleased.

"Forget it," Natasha said. Leah suppressed another sigh, because she could tell already that Natasha would end up telling Liam and her to forget many, many fights in the future. Leah was a pessimist pretending to be an optimist, and Liam was an optimist pretending to be a pessimist, so of course they were going to fight.

"So how do you think your parents will feel about you being a sidekick?" Leah asked Natasha calmly. They knew how Liam and Michelle's parents would feel, but not Natasha's.

"Oh, they won't mind," Natasha said happily. "They're just glad that I'm able to go. My parents haven't got powers, see, so to them having a power is really cool, even if I'm only a sidekick."

Leah gave a wry half smile and nodded. "You're lucky," she murmured. "It must be nice." Natasha shrugged, and Leah pulled out her mp3 player and lost herself in the music until it was time to get off the bus.

Leah smiled instead of saying goodbye and turned, waving over her shoulder. She walked home slowly, kicking the tiny bits of rock and broken pavement laying on the sidewalk, not particularly anticipating getting home.

She didn't have homework yet, but she didn't have anything else to do, either. It was to be another day of sitting around her room doing nothing. Wonderful.

Leah opened the front door and looked around. Her mom was home- she left just before they went to school and got home just before they came back- but where was she? "Mom?" Leah called, frowning. She wasn't worried, but usually her mother was puttering around the kitchen, planning or making dinner when she got home.

"In the living room," Adele called back. "I'm cleaning and watering the plants. Your sister isn't home yet, but she should be here in a minute or so. We're having lasagna for dinner, is that alright with you?"

Leah smiled. They would have lasagna whether she liked it or not, because it was tradition, but she loved lasagna. It was so good the way her mom made it, with pepperoni and sauce she had made herself. Canned sauce just wasn't the same, somehow.

"I love lasagna," Leah said to herself happily. "It's more than alright!" she called louder for her mother's benefit. "I don't have any homework, so I'm going to listen to music, okay?" Her mom made a noise of agreement, and Leah walked out of the kitchen, bringing her embroidered bag with her.

The front door went into the kitchen, and there were two doors leading out of that. One lead to the dining room, and the other led to a small 'room' with the pantry door, a staircase, and the living room door taking up all the wall space.

The doors to both the living room and the kitchen were left open at all times, and Leah saw her mother scrubbing diligently as she started up the stairs. It was kind of sad, the way her mother's life revolved around cooking, cleaning, and work.

It was her dad's fault. Adele dated occasionally, but most of the time she just puttered around the house, making sure everything was immaculate and taking care of Lainei and Leah. It shouldn't be like that- she should be happy again, but whenever Leah said something her mom just waved her away with a sad smile on her face.

Leah shook her head, knowing she would probably never see her mother married again. "Ah, well," she sighed to herself as she opened the door to her room. As soon as she entered, Leah looked around to make sure everything was in place, and then tossed her bag on her bed.

Everything in the room matched in an ocean theme. Pale, almost white wood for the bureau, bed frame, and doors (one to the hall, one to the closet), a light sandy colored carpet, and light turquoise walls and ceiling. There were seashells painted around the top and bottom of the walls, and around the doorways, coming up from the bottom.

Leah spent the rest of her evening doing nothing. Dinner was the same as always- there was very little talk and the sound of silverware clattering on their plates was deafening. She went to bed as soon as the dishes were done. She couldn't stand staying awake any longer.


	4. Some Villain's Kid

Leah woke up slowly, a small ray of sun peeking through the crack at the bottom of her window. She moaned quietly and rolled over, away from the sun. Half a minute later, the alarm clock started beeping, and Leah moaned again.

"Must I get up?" she mumbled to herself. A long pause, and then, "Yes, I must." Leah sat up quickly, turned off the alarm clock, and tossed back the covers. She stretched, hands laced together behind her head as she bent backwards. Her back cracked slightly as she twisted to one side. Leah yawned through a smile, the smile remaining when the yawn was gone.

It was her first real day at Sky High. She was a sidekick, sure, but she'd always known she'd be one, so it wasn't too disappointing. Besides, being a sidekick could be fun. And she could always quit, she didn't have to take orders from some snobby hero if she didn't want to.

Leah opened her bureau and pulled out a blue spaghetti tank top that matched her eyes and a jean skirt. She slipped into them quickly, tossing her large tee shirt and boxers, what she wore for pajamas, on her bed.

The skirt came to just above her knees, and the tee shirt showed a small bit of her stomach. Leah grimaced and pulled the spaghetti strap shirt off, replacing it with a less revealing but slightly more form fitting scooped neck tee shirt. Satisfied with that, Leah opened her sock drawer and pulled out above knee socks the same light, almost white blue color as her shirt.

Leah bounced out of her bedroom and burst into the bathroom she shared with Lainei, grinning at the mirror as she squeezed toothpaste on her brush and started brushing her teeth. Foam dripped down the brush and into the sink, and Leah giggled at herself. She looked like she had rabies.

"Oh my God," Lainei said distastefully from the doorway. "You are _so _freaky. Thank God my friends aren't over, or I might die of mortification!"

Leah rolled her eyes, making sure Lainei could see, and pulled the tooth brush out of her mouth, blowing air out of her mouth and spitting toothpaste everywhere on purpose. "Ew!" Lainei wrinkled her nose and turned around grandly, leaving the doorway. "I am not related to you!" she called back.

Leah nodded to her mirror self and grabbed her comb, brushing her hair quickly. "Done!" she called once her hair was pulled back in the usual pony tail. Lainei sniffed and brushed past her into the bathroom, and Leah grinned as she walked to the kitchen.

It was a sort of joke for Leah, and she suspected that Lainei saw it the same way. They never had heart to heart talks, and Lainei mocked Leah for her next to useless power when she was angry, but they understood each other. They really did care about each other, in a twisted way, and it was the reason Lainei didn't really care about things like the toothpaste drool.

"Hey mom!" Leah said, surprised to see her mother. She was usually at work by the time Leah was up and about, mostly because Leah woke up only twenty minutes before the bus came. She dressed quickly, didn't wear makeup on a regular basis, and usually had just coffee or toast for breakfast, so she could and did get up twenty minutes later than Lainei and her mom.

"You sound surprised to see me," Adele said, sounding amused.

Leah grinned cheekily at her. "I am. Usually you're on your way to work by now. Or did I wake up earlier than usual? My alarm is set to the same time as yesterday... Or at least _I_ didn't change it."

"Oh, no. Well, my boss said I should have a little extra time to get ready. I'm usually one of the first ones to arrive at work, and he noticed and told me to take my time. Isn't that nice of him? So, what do you want for breakfast? You've only got ten- make that five- minutes, so French toast is probably the best I can do for you."

Leah shrugged. "I'm not really hungry to be honest. I usually just have toast." She leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek. "Thanks for offering, though. Still, if I don't want to be late, I'd better run."

"Oh, surely you have time for a glass of juice! You need the calcium." Adele protested.

Leah shrugged. "I guess it wouldn't kill me," she said with a smile. Adele smiled back and poured her a glass of juice, watching as Leah downed it quickly. "Thanks!" Leah repeated. "Time to go." She grabbed her bag and swung it over her shoulder and took a deep breath.

"Lainei!" she yelled. Adele barely flinched, and shook her head in amusement. "We're going to be late for your bus in about two minutes, so I suggest you get down here!" Leah listened for the sound of feet thumping down the stairs, and nodded to herself, heading for the door.

"Oh!" Leah paused. "You look really nice, by the way. You should wear that suit more often."

Adele smiled and smoothed her skirt suit. "You really think so?" she asked almost shyly.

Leah nodded. "Definitely." It was true. The dark charcoal of the suit brought out the flecks of gray in Adele's chocolate brown eyes and made her blackish brown hair seem nicer somehow. Her mother was pretty at her worst, and when she tried she looked truly beautiful and younger than she was.

Lainei ran right through the room and was almost at the door when she paused. "Nice suit," she commented. "Leah's right. You should wear it more often." Adele positively beamed, glowing at the praise from both her daughters. Lainei smiled back, and Leah sighed enviously.

They looked so much alike- there were a few small differences, like in their noses, but Adele and Lainei were, with out a doubt, mother and daughter. They had the same dark hair, tan skin, height, body shape, and facial structure. Lainei's eyes were much grayer than Adele's, but that was the only really noticeable difference.

Leah, on the other hand, was a spitting image of her father. Taller than average but about a half inch shorter than Lainei, less delicate looking than her mother and sister, and a bit more muscular, although she was hardly a body builder. She had the same ocean blue eyes and golden brown hair, maybe a shade darker than her father's because of her mother's genes, and the same acne free, tanned cream complexion.

"Oh shit!" Leah blurted, seeing the clock. "Lainei, your bus is going to be at the stop in seconds!" She grabbed the handle of Lainei's backpack and pulled her out the door, waving to her mother hastily. She let go as soon as they were out the door, and the girls raced to the stop.

"Cutting it close there, Leah," Liam said as Leah and Lainei skidded to a stop in front of him and Natasha.

"Oh, shut up," Leah retorted, but she smiled afterwards to show she was just kidding. "Oh, guys, meet my sister. Lainei, this is Natasha, and this idiot is Liam McMoron-"

"It's McAllister!" Liam protested loudly.

"Oops, my mistake!" Leah said innocently. Lainei rolled her eyes and waved half heartedly at Leah's friends, moving to stand a few feet away from them. The bus pulled up a second later and Lainei got on it quickly, not looking back or waving.

"She seems nice," Natasha said, a touch annoyed at Lainei's rudeness.

"Yeah, sorry about that. She's not real keen on being seen with me in public. I mean, she won't deny our relation, but she won't really acknowledge it either. She doesn't want people ragging on her 'cause her sister's a sidekick, and we don't always agree on some things."

Liam frowned. "Some things like what?"

Leah shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. She didn't particularly like Liam's interest in Lainei. Sure, Lainei was her sister, but there was a possibility that Liam might like Michelle, and Leah would much rather have him date her than pine after her sister, who would never give him a second glance on account of him being younger and a sidekick.

"Things like my father," Leah said shortly. She wasn't going to lie to her friends, or keep things from them, aside from who her dad really was. She'd learned early on that that was a bad idea. If you wanted friends who would stick with you through thick and thin, you had to give them reason to trust you.

"Oh," Liam said. Leah nodded, and they didn't speak any more until their bus came.

"So when is your birthday?" Natasha asked Leah after she sat down next to Michelle. Leah wondered briefly why Natasha sat next to Michelle- did she know her? She had obviously known Liam for a long time, so why not sit next to him?

"It's February sixteenth," Leah admitted.

"Oh, that's so cool! Two days after Valentine's Day, huh?" Natasha grinned, and Leah had to grin back.

"Yeah. My sister's birthday is on Valentine's, actually, and my mom's is the eighteenth. It's really cool, because we always have three parties in a row- Lainei's, mine, and then mom's." Leah leaned her head against the back of the seat and smiled at the ceiling of the bus, happy and relaxed.

"Why not have just one?" Michelle asked, sounding faintly puzzled. "It would be easier for once. Less organizing and all that, not to mention cheaper. Just have one big cake, and have it on your birthday since it's in the middle of the three."

Leah blinked. Wow. Michelle was talking more and more as she got to know her, wasn't she? Even though she still didn't know much about her. "Well, we used to do that back in Hawaii, but here it just wouldn't work. That was when dad was still around, and he and mom organized it all."

Natasha, Liam, and Michelle all listened intently, and Leah shrugged. "Back then I used to hang out with mostly the same kids as Lainei, since there weren't that many kids in the area. It was a pretty small town. Now though, Lainei would die of embarrassment if she had to share a party with me, and mom usually keeps her low key, so it's just us three most of the time."

"What about your party?" Natasha asked curiously, cocking her head to the side.

Leah shrugged again. "What about it?" she asked uncomfortably. "I usually have a couple friends sleep over, have a cake, and then we just do whatever we feel like."

"I didn't know you used to live in Hawaii," Liam piped up. "What was it like? Can you speak Hawaiian?"

Leah laughed. "Of course I can! And-" she sighed mournfully. "It was nice there. Hot. We used to go to the beach every day, dad and me, and we'd surf for hours. Mom says I spent so much time in the water that I knew how to doggy paddle before I knew how to walk properly, because dad would carry me to the beach, but I had to swim on my own. I could surf before I was old enough to have my own board, and I can hold my breath for almost a minute."

"Wow," Liam said, impressed. "I wish I could do that. Do you still surf now that you live here? I mean, we're only about five minutes away by car, although it takes a lot longer if you walk."

Leah shrugged. She had no intention of telling them that she went surfing every weekend, that she went there so often that the guy who owned the small store there kept her board in his shop so that she wouldn't have to carry it back and forth every day.

They talked about other trivial things for the rest of the ride to school, with Leah only half paying attention. When they got off the bus Leah waited until everyone else was off to get up and follow them.

Will Stronghold was the first off the bus, and Leah wondered about him, and what Natasha had said about him not having any powers. Where his parents like her dad? No, they couldn't be. The Commander and Jetstream were good guys. They might be disappointed, but surely they would treat him the same as they would if he had powers.

Leah followed right behind Michelle, not wanting to have to navigate Sky High on her own. Liam and Natasha were walking a bit ahead of Michelle, so Leah sped up a bit to walk beside Michelle.

"How long have you guys known each other?" Leah asked casually. "It seems like Natasha's known you both for a while, but I wasn't sure. She never really said."

Michelle glanced at Leah and shrugged, looking ahead at Liam and Natasha. Leah followed her glance and examined them. Natasha was wearing an orange sweater and a pink plaid skirt with matching pink plaid platform shoes. She looked funny next to Liam, who was wearing jeans, the same hat, and only a slightly different white shirt under blue and purple button up as the day before.

Leah looked back at Michelle, who looked much she did the day before, only with a white skirt and green, white, and red long sleeved shirt rather than her cheerleader uniform. Michelle noticed and gave her a small smile. "Natasha's known Liam since they were in diapers, practically," she said finally. "And I met Natasha in fifth grade. We've been friends ever since, although I don't talk to Liam as much as I do Natasha."

"Hmm," Leah said thoughtfully. "I guess I'm sort of the intruder here, aren't I?" It made her kind of sad, thinking how they'd been friends since they were little, and here she was butting in. No wonder Michelle didn't say much- she probably didn't want her disrupting their little group.

"No, not really," Michelle disagreed. "I was the one butting in in fifth grade. Actually, Liam didn't like me for a while because of that, but when Natasha finally said that she could like two people just as much as she liked one, he finally got over it. You're still on probation, of course, but I think you'll do fine."

Leah's eyebrows shut up, and then a giant smile broke out on her face. "You really think so?" she asked hopefully. She wanted to be accepted to their group, and if Michelle thought she would be, she probably had a very good chance. Michelle was the most withdrawn of them all, after all, so if she liked Leah the others probably did too.

Michelle nodded, but she didn't say anything else. Leah didn't mind- she was just happy she would finally have some friends she could keep. It was hard staying friends with people who didn't know about your power, your past, or your future.

Natasha and Liam walked into a classroom, and Michelle and Leah followed. Leah looked around the room, grinning happily. There was a chalkboard hanging on the wall behind the teacher's desk and another standing up next to it.

Leah headed to a seat right next to the wall and sat down. Michelle, Liam and Natasha all sat in the front row, Liam and Michelle next to each other and Natasha in front of Leah, with an Asian girl between Liam and Natasha. Leah tapped Natasha on the shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows. "Prime note passing seats," she whispered.

The teacher, a middle aged man with graying red hair and blue eyes walked into the room in a suit. "Good morning class, and welcome to hero support. My name is," the teacher disappeared behind the standing up chalk board for a half a second, only to jump out in a rather stupid looking red, white, and blue costume. "All American Boy!"

Somebody in the class coughed, no doubt trying to hide a laugh, and Leah tried her best to hide her smirk by biting her lips. "But these days I just go by Mr. Boy." Leah let out a small sigh of relief. Thank God. She didn't think she could deal with a delusional old guy who still thought he was in any condition to fight crime.

The class was boring. Mr. Boy turned out to be the Commander's old sidekick, or hero support, as they were supposed to say. Will embarrassed him by saying that he couldn't recall either of his parents mentioning him, but Mr. Boy explained that all away, even if he did sound a little pained to do it.

Leah couldn't help thinking that Mr. Boy had a bit of a crush on Jetstream, but maybe that was her imagination. People starved for romance tended to imagine those kinds of things, as one of her old friends had proved to her multiple times.

English was only mildly interesting- they talked about code for telling your hero what the situation was, filled in the blanks in sentences, and other exercises Leah found both easy and boring.

Hero Support Technology was slightly better- Mr. Boy actually let them use belts with all kinds of gizmos on them. They had inflatable rafts, little hooks you shot at the ceiling to pull yourself up with, nets, and other useful things.

Leah put her hands together as if she was praying and said 'Thank God," when the bell rang for lunch. Hero Support was mildly interesting, but watching Will Stronghold correctly use a grappling hook to pull himself off the ground was not going to help her learn to save the world.

"Why can't we do anything interesting?" Leah complained at lunch as she poked her salad sulkily with her spork. "I mean, I don't mind being a sidekick, but really. Saving the world has to be more than just wearing stupid belts and using the correct grammar!"

"It is," Liam said gloomily. "But heroes save the world, not hero support. Anyway, we've got Medulla for Mad Science, and then we're polishing our quick change technique. That should liven up the day a little, huh?"

Michelle snorted. She seemed in a better mood than before, and she was actually smiling a little at everyone during class. "His head is huge, it's so creepy. I heard he's a total genius, though, and he's amazing at Mad Science, so maybe we'll actually learn something about it from him. I like Mr. Boy, but he's really not an exceptional teacher."

Natasha shrugged. "I liked him. Yeah, he's not the best teacher out there, but he's far from the worst, and that's good enough for me. Besides, I also heard Medulla's got a bit of a cruel streak. Apparently he hates pretty much anybody that can't perfectly assemble one of his rays, and they're hard as hell to make if you haven't had previous experience."

Leah sighed. "Whatever. Let's talk about something else, okay? I don't really feel like talking about school right now. Or ever, really."

Liam laughed. "Tell me about it. God, I was right about my mother. She almost died of disappointment when I told her I was a sidekick. I don't know why- it's not like she didn't expect it- but still, I guess she hoped." He shrugged, and Leah sighed.

"Liam, when I said let's not talk about school, I meant let's not talk about anything even remotely related to school, alright? Let's talk about- people or something." Leah rolled her eyes and looked around. "Who is he?" She pointed to a guy with long, brown-black hair hunched over in his seat. He was looking at Will Stronghold, and it wasn't with a very pleasant look on his face.

"Who is he?" Liam asked disbelievingly. "_Who is he?_ Oh, no one special, just _Warren Peace!_"

Leah blinked. "Warren Peace?" she asked. She had absolutely no idea who he was. "I have absolutely no idea who he is."

Liam gaped at her, seemingly unable to say anything, so Natasha spoke. "His mom is a hero and his dad is a villain," she explained. "Barron Battle, one of the worst super villains of our time."

"Wow," breathed Leah. Her eyes were wide and she stared at Warren, entranced. She hadn't known that there were other villain's kids going to Sky High. "So what's his beef with Will?" she asked, breaking out of her trance and turned away from Warren to look back at Natasha.

Natasha shrugged. "Will's dad is the one that put Barron Battle in jail, so I guess he figures if he can't take it out on the Commander, why not his son?"

Leah frowned. "So you think he'll be a villain when he graduates?" It wasn't really a question- it was pretty obvious from the faces of all three of her new friends, although Michelle was eating and looked less into the conversation than Liam and Natasha.

"Yes," Liam said bluntly. "I mean, is there any doubt? His dad's a villain, and his mom may be a hero, but it obviously hasn't rubbed off. Bad blood shows," Liam glanced at Warren one more time and then turned away.

Leah's mouth tightened and she looked down at her plate, not wanting them to see her scowl. Bad blood. Ha! They knew nothing about bad blood. "You're wrong," she said tightly. "Just because his dad is a villain doesn't mean he is, too."

Liam snorted, and Natasha just shrugged, obviously not wanting to get into it. "I don't really care, to be honest," Michelle said finally, setting down her food and looking at all three of them. "If he turns out to be a villain, well, the Commander and Jetstream can take care of one jumped up little teenage villain, and if he doesn't, good for him."

She looked back down at her food and started eating again, and everybody else followed her example. Leah glared at her food, though, and kept sneaking looks at Warren. Did he know what they thought of him? Did he care? Leah decided that he probably didn't, and a small smile curved her lips. Good for him.


	5. Forget the Citizen, Save Yourself

Leah chose to ignore their argument and brought up another topic for lunch. Natasha grabbed onto it eagerly, not wanting a fight, and Michelle put in her two cents worth, willing to let it go. Only Liam hung back, and even then only a little.

When lunch was over Leah dumped her tray, glanced once more at Warren when her friends weren't looking, and headed back to Mad Science, her next class. They had desks for two in Mad Science, so Leah chose the seat next to Natasha, leaving Liam to sit beside Michelle.

Mad Science was interesting, to say the least. Medulla did indeed have a sadistic streak, and he knocked out half the class with a green rock carved into disks and used in certain beams. They wouldn't be making anything yet- instead Medulla instructed them on the differences between rays and beams, on how to assemble both, and everything else he deemed crucial.

"Wow," Leah said to Natasha, who was walking at her side as they left Mad Science. "I didn't realize how complicated Mad Science was going to be. I mean, I thought it was going to be like- well, I don't know, but I also didn't think I was going to be watching half my classmates faint while Medulla chuckles like the loony he is."

Natasha laughed and nodded, and Liam broke in, walking quickly to catch up. Michelle was by his side, and Leah glanced at them slyly. "He's a madman for sure. I just hope he doesn't get any ideas about knocking me out, or I'm going to have a talk with Principal Powers about his little joke. Actually, I think I might anyway. She seems like she might actually care that he does shi- stuff like that."

Leah laughed when she realized what Liam had just stopped himself from saying. "It's okay, Liam. You can swear, I'm sure no one will mind. It's not like we've never heard it before, honestly." She shook her head. "We're fourteen, not four."

Liam shrugged. "Swearing is proof that you haven't got the brains and imagination to come up with anything better. So thanks, but I'll keep my foul language to myself."

Natasha shook her head. "I don't usually swear, unless I stub my toe or something, but Liam _never_ does. Half swears like that are the closest he's ever come to cussing. We've tried for years, Michelle especially, to get him to say the F word, but he resists our best efforts."

Leah laughed in disbelief. "The F word? What the hell? And why are we talking about swearing, anyway? God, what a conversation. I say we talk about something cooler, like chocolate, or Michelle."

"What?" Michelle asked quickly. "Why talk about me? Why not Natasha?"

"So has she got a boyfriend?" Leah asked, grinning cheekily. This was the best way to find out just how Liam felt about her, and how she felt about him.

"Nah," Natasha answered. "She hasn't dated since Jared in eighth grade. What a loser," she added, shaking her head.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Leah asked, honestly concerned. It was probably nothing horrible, but still. Michelle was her friend, and she didn't like people messing with her friends. Michelle shook her head no.

"He cheated on her with some bimbo," Liam growled angrily once he had Michelle's permission to talk about it. "Said since she wouldn't put out he'd have to go someplace else, and he did. Jerk. I was going to hit him, but Michelle said just leave it." Liam snorted. "I should have hit him anyway," he mumbled under his breath.

Leah looked at Liam appraisingly through her curtain of hair, and nodded slightly in satisfaction. He definitely liked her, and probably had for longer than he realized. She glanced at Michelle to see a small, admiring smile on her face as she looked at Liam.

Leah looked away from her friends and grinned happily. She hadn't expected things to be this easy. Michelle had seemed so gloomy at first, uninterested in anything but staring out the window on that bus.

A thought occurred to Leah and she frowned thoughtfully. Maybe Michelle had thought she was competition? She had been joking around with Liam, maybe the reason Michelle was so distant was because she thought Leah liked Liam?

An even bigger grin split Leah's face, and she skipped ahead of her friends to the gym, where the sidekick class would be practicing quick changing by getting into their gym clothes that way and then doing various games to help them develop lifesaving skills.

Save the Citizen would start as soon as they were done, but because no hero wanted to cripple themselves with a sidekick when they could team up with another hero, it was pretty much a free class for the sidekicks.

Leah wasn't the first to the gym, so she spared a brief second to pout, but when she realized that she hadn't officially introduced herself to the rest of her gym class she cheered up and headed for those who were there.

"Hi!" she said, sliding up next to a shortish black kid and offering him her hand. "I'm Leah. You know, I just realized that I haven't introduced myself? I mean, I don't know the names of anyone here but my three rather slow friends over there-" Leah jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Liam, Natasha, and Michelle. "-and that's really a shame, because if you're going to be in my class for the rest of high school, the least I can do is learn your names!"

The boy blinked at her twice- blink, blink- and then stuck his own hand and shook hers enthusiastically. "Ethan. And it's nice to meet you, Leah."

Leah grinned. "Likewise. So what's your power? I can create little bolts of lightening, but nothing big enough to rate hero, I'm afraid." Her friends came up behind her, but Leah didn't say anything, choosing to wait for Ethan's power.

"I melt," he said simply.

"Cool! So, this is Natasha, Michelle, and the tall one lurking in the back is Grindlefund. He'll probably try to tell you his name is Liam, but he's full of it. He just wishes his parents had given him a name like that, that's all."

Liam growled behind her, but Leah's gigantic smile didn't waver, and the brightness of it seemed to attract Ethan's friends, because they all came over. First was a pretty red haired girl wearing a green shirt. "Hi! I'm Layla."

Layla smiled, looking only a teeny bit uncertain, so Leah let the smile shrink a little and become more sincere. "Leah."

Will Stronghold shook her hand next. "Will."

"Stronghold," Leah said, nodding. "I know." He looked confused, but Leah didn't bother to tell him how she knew. Poor kid- he obviously meant well, but he looked just a little bit clueless. Layla sure thought he was great though, Leah noted. She was looking at him with a mostly hidden, adoring expression.

"Zack," a tall, pale kid with blond hair so light it was almost white said. Leah smiled and nodded. He was wearing all white and yellow, and he looked like a bit of a wanksta with his hat on like that and the too-long-to-be-shorts-but-too-short-to-be-pants he was wearing, but he seemed nice, unlike most of the wankstas she knew.

"Magenta," the girl next to Zack said, looking anything but thrilled. Leah grinned, amused, and Magenta just stared back at her, looking bored.

"Alright class," Mr. Boy said, breaking them out of their little moment of silence. "Gather around. Now, watch me." He walked over to the side of the folding 'wall' everyone was gathered next to, and then walked behind it so that he was out of sight for a second saying, "Change, and pose!" Mr. Boy emerged from behind the wall in his All American Boy costume, posed for a second, and then grabbed the clipboard and started scribbling on it. "Now you! Go!"

Layla went first after a moment's hesitation, not sure if Mr. Boy was talking to her. Will followed her, and then Magenta and Ethan. Each did their own little pose except Magenta, who wavered on the spot and then moved on rather than bothering to pose. Zack went after Magenta, only rather than emerging fully clothed he came out in nothing but a pair of white boxers with enormous yellow polka dots on them.

"Go back," Mr. Boy said, shaking his head as everyone had a little laugh at Zack's expense. He did so sheepishly, and Leah shook her head. If she ended out coming out in nothing but her underwear...

Leah shuddered and followed Liam, ducking behind the little wall for a second and emerging in her gym clothes. They consisted of a pale blue shirt, white shorts that thankfully weren't as small as she'd feared, white socks with blue and red stripes near the top, and white tennis shoes.

The guys had a slightly different uniform- longer, baggier shorts and darker blue shirts that were also longer and baggier, but the same socks and shoes.

As soon as the bell rang at the end of class after everyone had changed back into their normal clothing the entire student body came pouring into the gym. Leah caught Michelle's eye and jerked her head at the stands. Michelle nodded, because over the chatter of hundreds of students they couldn't hear each other, seeing as there were about fifteen feet and a bunch of students between them.

Michelle grabbed Liam's sleeve and tugged on it, tapped Natasha's arm, and then grabbed it too and pulled them behind her as she made her way over to Leah. They all sat down next to her, and Leah smiled faintly. "Let the show begin," she murmured.

Mr. Boy had already put the folding wall thingy away and left, and Boomer climbed up onto his referee's seat. He looked like a lifeguard, whistle, shorts, and all. "God, those shorts are scary," Liam commented. "I don't know how the hell he can stand those."

"What do you mean?" Leah asked.

"Look at how short they are! Jesus. No grown man should ever wear shorts that short unless he's really, really hot, and that is one thing that Boomer is not," Michelle said flatly.

Leah looked at Boomer's shorts, hiked up even further because he was sitting, and understood exactly what Michelle and Liam were talking about. She felt green as she agreed whole heartedly with Michelle. Natasha chuckled, but even she had to admit when they pressed her that yes, Boomer, and his shorts, were revolting.

"It's not the kind of thing I notice," Leah said, stifling a yawn of boredom. "But now that you point it out I see what you mean. I wonder why he wears them? I mean, surely he doesn't think he actually looks good?"

"Who knows? Maybe he wants to impress Principal Powers," Michelle suggested. Leah sniggered and nodded, but then Boomer blew his whistle to announce the start of the first round, and they all quieted down immediately.

As soon as the whistle shrilled again, signaling the end of the first game, Liam spoke. "If I wanted to be a hero before this game started, I was crazy. There is absolutely no way in hell you could ever get me out there, even if I did have a real power. Jesus, did you see what happened to that one kid?"

The kid in question had been thrown all the way across the gym by way of telekinesis, slammed into the top of the wall, and then slid down it to crash painfully onto an unused seat. He was being carried to the nurse's office on a stretcher someone had made out of a hairpin by enlarging it until it was big enough to carry him on. It was possible that he was conscious, but Boomer wasn't sure.

"I don't know," Leah said thoughtfully. "That was pretty brutal, but I think I'd do it. It's not always that bad, first of all, and second, if my lightening was strong enough to make me a hero, I could totally fry them."

Liam gaped at Leah. "You're insane! You would honestly do that? He flew about fifty feet, slammed into a wall, and then fell down about twenty to crash on a hard, wooden surface! He's probably going to need major help from a chiropractor once they wake him up."

Leah shrugged, and Michelle snorted. "It doesn't really matter if you would do it or not," she reasoned. "Because your power isn't hero strength, it's sidekick strength. So why does it matter? You'll never get picked to play Save the Citizen. Sidekicks don't play Save the Citizen, because what hero in their right mind would choose a sidekick when he can have another hero?"

Leah sighed mournfully. "True. But you must admit it would be cool. Can you imagine if I won Save the Citizen? I mean, I'd have to find a hero who didn't mind having a sidekick partner, which is practically impossible, but still. It'd be awesome to show the heroes that they aren't as great as they think they are."

She leaned forward and rested her head on her fists, imagining winning Save the Citizen herself. She saw Liam and Michelle exchange looks, shaking their heads over hers, thinking she couldn't see them, and Natasha, who really couldn't care less, watching the game.

But pretty soon she spaced out again, and didn't snap out of it until the bell rang to signal the end of the day half an hour later. Leah jumped up and followed her friends, first to collect their bags, which they had been told to leave in Mr. Boy's room during gym and Save the Citizen, and then to the bus.

Leah mused over the idea of following them, which she seemed to do a lot, and decided that it was because her head was always in the clouds, and so she trusted them to go to the right place while she followed happily, like a little sheep. That was not acceptable.

"I follow you guys too much," Leah said decisively to her friends. "I need to get my head out of the clouds."

Liam shrugged. "Not gonna happen," he said dismissively. "We go to Sky High, remember? Your head is going to be in the clouds for the rest of high school."

Leah gave him a sarcastic look. "You know what I mean, Liam, don't pretend you don't." He did, too. She could tell by the little smirk on his face. "And stop smirking at me," she added, pretending to be annoyed.

"Would you two stop bickering? I'm tired, and you're not helping me fall asleep..." Michelle yawned, a yawn big enough that Leah would have been able to see every one of her teeth if she hadn't covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes were half closed as she climbed up the steps onto the bus, and Leah smiled and gave a tiny breath of laughter.

"Sorry," Liam apologized. "You want to use me as a pillow on the way home?" Leah immediately perked up, delighted with what she was hearing. He was offering himself as a pillow, willingly and openly? This was good. This was very good.

"Sure!" Michelle perked up just a bit and smiled at Liam. He smiled back, and Leah watched gleefully. She had to stop herself from rubbing her hands together when Liam sat down in a window seat and Michelle promptly followed him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"So cute," Leah whispered, watching. Liam looked at Michelle fondly for a minute before turning to look out the window, and Michelle had her eyes closed and a peaceful, happy look on her face.

"What are you so happy about?" Natasha asked. She looked confused, and Leah wanted to tell her, but she wasn't certain how she would react. Leah sat down and patted the seat next to her, eyebrows raised at Natasha in an invitation to sit. Natasha plopped down next to her and sat her bag on her lap.

"Oh, nothing." Leah smiled slightly and shrugged casually. "Hey, what's your phone number?" Leah dug through her messenger bag and pulled out a pen, poising it to write down Natasha's number on her hand. Natasha told her, and Leah scribbled it down, wrote Natasha's name over it, and then underlined the name. "There," she said, satisfied.

"What's yours? Here, write it on this piece of paper, kay? My mom hates it when I write on my hand, plus I've only got a pencil. My stupid pen ran out the minute I tried to use it." Leah quickly wrote down her number on the piece of paper and handed it back.

Leah and Natasha chattered quietly about various things on the way home, and got off the bus still talking. As soon as Liam was off the bus, though, Leah started needling him about letting Michelle use him as a pillow. "It was so cute!" she teased. "I wish I could have taken a picture."

Liam scowled at her. "Oh, shut up," he growled, irritated. "She was tired."

Leah just grinned knowingly and started walking home. She got about ten feet before she remembered something. "Hey Natasha, I'll call you in a little while, okay? We can help each other with homework. I'm pretty good at English and stuff, but not so great at Mad Science..."

Natasha nodded and waved goodbye, making her own way home with Liam walking beside her. Leah watched them for a minute, glad she finally had some friends that might last, before she turned back around and went home.

When Leah pushed the front door open, the first thing she saw was her mother, smiling at her. Leah blinked, surprised. Adele was naturally a happy person, but she looked even happier than usual, and Leah had no idea why. "Hey mum!" was all she said, choosing not to upset her mother by commenting on her smile.

"Hey honey," Adele said. "How was school?" She smiled at Leah, eyes crinkling, and Leah smiled back automatically.

"It was alright," she said, shrugging dismissively. "I made a couple friends- Natasha, Liam, and Michelle. Liam totally has a crush on Michelle, and I'm pretty sure she feels the same way, so I'm going to try and set them up. They're all really nice, and they're sidekicks like I am, so we have all the same classes."

Adele's smile flickered for a second, and a sad look crossed her face. Leah knew why- she was stuck in the middle, too powerful to be a civilian but not powerful enough to be a hero. Not powerful enough for her father to care about her.

And that was the source of the friction in their family- her mother loved her, but she would never understand her, because Leah was just too much her father's daughter. And Lainei, despite being everything her father wanted in the superpower department, was too much her mother's daughter to really understand why Leah had loved her father so much, or why Leah liked the things she did. And yet Lainei refused to say that William was dead like everyone else, and no one was sure why. Was it because she was loyal to her father, villain or not? Or was it simply because she refused to pretend?

Adele's smile came back, and Leah relaxed. "That's wonderful. Just make sure the two you're setting up are the right two. I'd hate to see you lose friends over a stupid mistake like the last time."

Leah winced, because she knew her mother was right. Her last best friends, two girls who had been inseparable for four years, had both liked the same guy. The one Leah had tried to pair the guy up with, however, was the one who had kept her feelings a secret, because she didn't want her friend to know she liked the same person. The last month of eighth grade was spent alone, none of them talking to each other.

"Don't worry," Leah assured her mother. "I haven't even mentioned it to any of them yet. I'm going to wait, just in case, but I'm certain that Natasha doesn't like Liam. And anyway, I'm going to call her later, so I can always ask her then."

Adele shook her head. "Don't ask her outright, hon. There's no way she'd tell you if you just asked her that way."

Leah smiled craftily. "I know. But Will Stronghold's best friend is madly in love with him- it's totally obvious- so I'll just ask her how she feels about falling for your longtime best friend, and use that to judge whether she might like Liam or not."

Adele shook her head. "You love doing that, don't you? Setting people up. I admit it was always fun when I did it, but sometimes you need to just let people get together on their own."

Leah nodded. "I know, mum. And I plan on it. I'm not going to be totally obvious and stuff, I'm just going to sort of push them a bit. It's just a matter of time anyway. Whereas they would have gotten together maybe in college, now they'll get together in high school and have that much more time together, that's all."

She shrugged and smiled. Maybe it was none of her business when Michelle and Liam got together, but in her opinion, love should be embraced by those lucky enough to find it. And if they didn't even realize they had it, well, it was her duty to show them. Discreetly, of course. Playing Cupid was much more fun if you did it from the background.

Adele nodded in understanding, and Leah kicked her shoes off and opened the fridge. She pulled out Nutella and peanut butter and set them on the counter, and then pulled a pie plate, a butter knife, and the crackers out of the cupboard and set them down too.

A big scoop of peanut butter and Nutella each went on the plate, as did a handful of crackers. Leah put the knife in the dishwasher when she was done and brought the plate and her bag with her to her room. She dumped her bag on the floor next to her bed and sat down on it.

Leah polished off the crackers and then pulled her homework out of her bag and grabbed the phone. She dialed the number on her hand, and waited as the phone rang. "Please be there," Leah whispered to herself.

"Hello?" A woman's voice asked.

Leah immediately smiled in relief. "Hi, this is Leah, may I talk to Natasha?" Leah made sure to keep her voice polite, and the woman and the other end chuckled.

"Sure, hon," she said. There was a small clunk, like the phone was being set down, and then it was quiet for a second, before Leah heard the woman yelling in the background, "Natasha! Your new friend is on the phone! Come get it!" She picked the phone back up and said, "Just a second. She was up in her room."

"Okay!" Leah chirped. A second later she heard Natasha stomping down the stairs, and then another small scuffle as the phone was handed over.

"Hello?" Natasha asked in a half cautious, half curious voice.

"Hi," Leah said.

She could almost hear Natasha relax, and her voice sounded much less formal as she said, "Leah! Hey! So you want to get started on our homework then?"

Leah nodded to herself and said, "Yeah," into the phone. "I'm pretty sure that number one is B," she said slowly, looking over the homework.

There was a rustle as Natasha pulled out her own paper, and then she spoke. "Yeah, I think you're right. It makes sense... so, one B. What about two? If your hero is wrapped in iron chains..."

It took them about fifteen minutes to do the homework together, but they stayed on the phone and played twenty questions for longer. "Okay," Leah said, laughing slightly from Natasha's last answer. "If you could go out with anybody in hero class, whatever grade, who would it be?"

"Just the heroes?" Natasha asked. "Oh- I don't know. Um- not somebody who's a snob, but I also wouldn't want somebody that never talks, either... Crap, I don't know any heroes I'd date! I don't even know any sidekicks I'd date. What about you?"

Leah thought it over for a second. "I'm not sure," she said finally. "No self respecting hero would ever look at us anyway. We're sidekicks- losers- and they're heroes, the kings and queens of the school. So it doesn't really matter anyway."

"Yeah," Natasha said dismissively. "Hey, you want to come over on Friday? Michelle and Liam are sleeping over. It's sort of a tradition- we all go to one of our houses once a month, all three of us, watch movies, eat pizza, and just mess around. I don't think they'll mind you joining us."

Leah smiled up at her ceiling, excited. "Sure! If you guys don't mind me butting in I'd love to come!"

"Okay! I'll tell you tomorrow what they said, okay? I'm gonna go, and I'll call them and ask."

Leah nodded to herself again, even though she knew Natasha couldn't see. "Sure. Bye!"

Natasha hung up, and once she was gone Leah clicked 'End' and tossed the phone down on the bed beside her, still staring at the ceiling. So she was being invited to their sleepover. Well, hopefully, if Michelle and Liam didn't mind. Leah crossed her fingers and hoped that they didn't. Going to this sleepover would show, once and for all, if she was being accepted into their group.


	6. She's the Man

Leah woke up slowly, and took her time getting out of bed. Today was the day that would tell if she was finally going to make some permanent friends. She had to look good. She pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and her black 'hooker boots' over a pair of white knee socks, and then a cerulean blue shirt and a white jacket she left unbuttoned. The shirt was the same color as her eyes, which was why she liked it, and the white jacket was her favorite one.

When she looked at herself in the mirror, Leah smiled. She looked good in blue, and she knew it. No other color looked quite as good on her, not to mention she loved it, so it made up most of her wardrobe.

Leah grabbed her backpack and went downstairs after she brushed her teeth and put on a coat of chap stick. She hated dry lips, and when she bit them a lot it dried them out. Adele was in the kitchen humming when Leah went down.

"Oh, hello, Leah," she greeted, smiling softly.

Leah blinked. Wow. Her mother looked so- happy. Not that she looked miserable most of the time, but there was a certain glow she didn't usually have that was present. "Hey, mum," she said, slightly puzzled. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. So what do you want for breakfast?"

"Um..."

"Well, you know where everything is... I have to go to work, so be careful, alright? And behave." Leah nodded. Of course. Because she couldn't be trusted to behave unless her mother told her to, like Lainei could... Immediately Leah felt bad for thinking that, but it was true. Her mother seemed to think that Leah was a troublemaker, and Leah couldn't figure out why.

Leah left for the bus stop after a minute of silence. Better to get there early and sit around doing nothing than sit around her house and why wonder her mother was incapable of trusting her. She was sick of it.

It took five minutes for Lainei to get to the bus stop, but Leah didn't bother to greet her when she did. She sat on the sidewalk and ignored everything, choosing to glare at the sidewalk instead. When Leah got in one of her rare bad moods, she hated everything and everyone, and Lainei knew it, so she ignored her right back. It would have pissed Leah off much more if she had tried to talk.

When Lainei's bus pulled up, though, she walked over to Leah and patted her on the head. "Don't let life get you down too much, kid," she said. "I know sometimes it sucks, but it could be much worse."

"How?" Leah asked, disgusted. Her father was a murderer and her mother didn't trust her. Yeah, life was real frigging jolly.

"We could be dirt poor and living in the slums," Lainei informed Leah cheerfully, and stepped up on the bus. Leah watched it drive off, and then shook her head. Lainei was right, sort of. And if she wanted to be accepted into Natasha, Michelle, and Liam's group, she couldn't be a bitch to them.

Liam and Natasha walked up behind Leah just as she thought that, and Natasha tapped Leah on the shoulder. "Hey, Leah," she greeted, grinning. Leah turned her head to look at her, a smile forming on her own face.

"Hey, Natasha, Liam." Leah nodded to them, and then turned back around and rested her chin on her hand, staring at the pavement gloomily. She knew that she should lighten up, stop her grumpy mood now, but she couldn't. For the thousandth time, she asked herself why her father couldn't just be good. Why couldn't he have stayed the man she adored as a little girl? Why did he have to abandon his family?

"You look- I dunno. You don't look very good. You okay?" Natasha asked. Leah nodded slowly.

"I'm fine." Leah had not fitted in when they had first moved to Maxville, not like Adele and Lainei did, but over time she had learned to pretend. She hid her sorrow behind the mask of an ever-present cheerful smile until she started to believe it herself. She hid her wild side, pretended she liked the boring Christmas parties her mom's friends threw, and told no one what she did on her weekends.

"Okay! So I asked Liam and Michelle if they minded you joining us on our sleepover, and they said they didn't mind at all!" Natasha was all too happy to tell Leah the news, and she wasn't disappointed with the bright smile that crossed Leah's face.

"Really?" Leah asked hopefully, biting her bottom lip.

"Really," Liam assured her, and nodded. "I guess you're officially one of us now, huh?"

Leah's face split in a giant grin and she jumped up and hugged first Liam, and then Natasha, just as the bus pulled up. "Thank you!" she gushed. "Thank you so, so much! Where's Michelle?" Leah bounced up the steps of the bus, ignoring the odd looks she was getting, and threw herself at Michelle, suffocating her with a hug.

"What the hell?" she choked, and tried to pry Leah's arms off her.

Leah pulled back, still grinning manically. "Natasha told me you guys said it was okay if I joined your sleepover. And she said I'm officially one of you now!"

"That's all?" Michelle asked in disbelief. "What, did you think we'd say no or something?" She stared at Leah, not understanding why she was so happy about something so small, and Leah shrugged and looked down, embarrassed.

"I don't make friends easily. I'm too crazy, I guess, and when I do make friends we never stay friends for long. I don't know why. I guess it's because I had to lie to them about having a superpower, crappy as it is. I've had about four friends in the four years I've lived here, and none of them lasted more than six months."

"Oh," Michelle said, frowning. It didn't make sense. She didn't think that Leah's craziness was a problem- it was actually quite funny. Natasha was cheerful, but Leah was just wild. She added spice to their little group.

"And- well, I disappear on the weekends," Leah admitted. "It's sort of a private thing for me. My friends always wanted to hang out or go shopping on the weekends, and I was always gone, and they didn't know why."

"Why are you always gone?" Liam asked, puzzled.

"It's a thing," Leah explained. She didn't know how to tell them. She wasn't always as happy as she pretended to be (although most of the time she was) and spending her weekend at the beach helped? "I have to unwind, and I can't do that at my house or at school. So I go have a private day. And that upset my friends, so they stopped asking me out on weekends, and then during the week... and then we just drifted apart altogether until I was sitting alone at lunch again." Leah tried to force a smile, failed, and shrugged. "I can hang out before noon on Saturdays and past noon on Sundays, but between then is my me time."

Natasha nodded, seemingly to herself. "I can understand that. Everybody needs time to themselves to think. I just do that at home, but if you can't, well, that's none of my business."

Leah smiled at her friends thankfully. "You guys are awesome," she said honestly. "Everyone else seems to think I'm strange."

Michelle shrugged. "We go to Sky High, Leah. We're all strange. Get used to it."

The rest of the bus ride passed quickly, and Leah smiled happily to herself as she got off the bus with her friends. She was finally starting to fit in. She could not have been happier.

The rest of the week went just as well until Friday at lunch, when it all fell apart. Leah wasn't there for the first part- she was putting her books away in her locker while Michelle and Liam went to lunch ahead of her.

When Mr. Boy went running past, though, her and Natasha exchanged glances and then took off down the hall in the wake of Gwen and Penny, who had her clones pushing people out of the way.

The lunch room was in chaos when they got there. Leah's jaw dropped open when she saw what Will was doing. He was picking up a whole table- with _Warren_ on top of it! Apparently, he had developed a power...

Will heaved the table, and Warren went flying, and then fell down, crashing into another table and smashing it. Leah stared, mouth wide open. It was funny, in a way, watching Warren going flying and crashing like that... she immediately felt sick to her stomach. How could she think like that? It was a real person being thrown around...

Thoughts of her father flashed through her mind, and Leah's eyes filled with tears. She turned and rushed out of the room, nearly colliding with Principal Powers halfway down the hall. She didn't even notice, just sidestepped and rushed away from the cafeteria.

Ten minutes later Michelle, Liam, and Natasha followed the rest of the sidekicks into the classroom and found Leah, face buried on her arms in her desk. Natasha headed for her immediately.

"What's wrong, Leah?" she asked, sitting down at the desk next to Leah, totally ignoring the fact that it wasn't hers. "You ran out of the lunch room like a bat out of hell, and to be honest, you still don't look very good..."

"Nothing," Leah muttered. "It's just the fight."

"I know!" Michelle said, sitting down backwards at the seat in front of Leah so that she was facing her. "I can't believe it. I mean, I knew Warren had a problem with Will, but attacking him because he spilled his lunch on him?"

"And it wasn't even Will's fault, either," Liam put in. "Lash tripped him."

"Yeah. I can't believe Will punched Warren through three walls and he still came back for more! It was totally insane," Michelle said admiration in her voice.

Liam frowned slightly, and Leah felt a twinge of pity for him. He had no idea that Michelle was in love with him. He'd probably drive himself crazy with jealousy if Michelle said one more word.

"Warren _is_ insane," Natasha said wryly. "I can't believe he freaked out because of something like that."

Liam snorted. "He's a villain's son," he scoffed. "What do you expect? He was probably raised to attack anyone that crosses him."

"You don't know that," Michelle said dismissively. "I think it's just Will, 'cause his dad put Warren's in jail and everything."

Liam clenched his teeth, and drew a deep breath. "Whatever," he muttered. "I still think he's a bully and a jerk. As far as he knew, Will didn't have any powers and he still attacked him. He's a maniac," he added under his breath.

"And you think that's because he's the son of a villain?" Leah asked, frowning. Liam shrugged. "You're wrong," Leah said strongly, shaking her head. "His mother was a hero, and she's the one he's been living with most of his life, ever since his dad went to jail. No way she raised him to be a villain."

"Yeah, but I bet he writes to his dad," Michelle pointed out, springing to Liam's defense, even though a minute ago she had been the one arguing with him. "Like Barron Battle would pass up any chance to blacken the name of the Commander and Jetstream? I mean, they _did_ put him away... "

Leah shook her head. They were going to believe what they wanted to believe, no matter what she said. And anyway, who cared? Warren obviously didn't care if he came off as a villain, so why should she? Just because her dad was a villain too didn't mean her and Warren had anything in common...

The rest of the day passed quickly, and Leah got off the bus at Natasha's house at the end of the day. Natasha's house was white with red shutters and a black front door. Leah smiled. The shutters where such a bright, cheerful shade of red she thought Natasha must have picked them out.

"Come on in," Natasha said, standing in the door. She tossed her backpack onto the table from the door, and Liam and Michelle did the same. They were obviously very familiar with the house, and had no problem treating it like it was their own.

A tall, pretty black woman walked into the room, and greeted Natasha, Michelle, and Liam with big smiles and hugs. "Home already?" she asked, good naturedly. "Just remember to do your homework before you dip into the junk food, alright?" She turned to Leah, who was standing awkwardly, not sure what she should do. "You must be Leah."

Leah nodded uncertainly, but gave the woman, who obviously had to be Natasha's mother, a smile. "It's nice to finally meet you," she said, swooping in to give Leah a hug. Leah stood there for a minute, not sure what to do, before Natasha's mother pulled back. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot to introduce myself!" she said, sounding embarrassed. "I'm Faylinn, Natasha's mother. But you can just call me Linn, everyone does."

Leah nodded, a bigger smile taking over her face. "Faylinn... that's a nice name."

Linn threw her head back and laughed. "That's what my husband said when he met me," she admitted, still chuckling. "It was followed by a quick succession of pick-up lines, and I admit I fell for them."

Leah grinned, but everyone else rolled their eyes. They had probably heard the story a hundred times. "Come on, Leah, let's go do our homework and get it over with..."

Leah nodded, and they all grabbed their bags and filed up the stairs. Natasha opened a door and gestured everyone into her room. "Nice," Leah commented, looking around. Michelle and Liam, used to Natasha's room, looked around as if they were seeing it for the first time.

"It is pretty cool, isn't it? We helped her paint it a couple years ago when she decided pale purple walls and carpets weren't for her." Michelle commented. "Of course, we're used to it now, but..."

The walls were purple with big orange flowers like you might see on Bermuda shorts, and the carpet on the floor was a matching orange. The bed was some sort of dark wood, and the bureau was black metal with wooden drawers painted bright pink. There were posters on the walls of a couple different bands, and one of SpongeBob. To top it off the back of the door was painted bright, lime green, with orange flowers and swirlies. All in all, it was a very colorful room.

Leah laughed. "Yeah, I can tell. It's like you guys live here, too, not just Nat."

"Nat?" Natasha protested. "You make me sound like an annoying little insect!"

Liam laughed, and Natasha hit him in the arm. He didn't even flinch. Natasha was tall, but she was slim. Liam was much more muscular than her, even if he wasn't as buff as Warren, and even if it did hurt, he wasn't going to admit it.

"I like Nat," Leah protested. "You can be Nat, Michelle can be Shelly, Liam can be... Lee, I guess, and I'll be... um..."

"You'll both have to be Lee," Michelle said, smiling. "You could be twins, or something." Leah grinned, and reached up to ruffle Liam's hair. He ducked away, but Leah just laughed mischievously. Michelle watched them with a smile on her face, and they continued to fool around for a minute until Linn called up the stairs that she didn't think homework was that loud, and they had to do it before they did anything else.

"Sorry, mum!" Natasha yelled down the hall. "Okay, let's get to work, guys," she said reluctantly. "Mum will get what she wants eventually anyway..."

Twenty minutes later, they had everything spread out. Natasha was laying on her bed with her feet on the pillow and homework at the foot of the bed in front of her. Leah was lying on the floor next to Michelle, and Liam was sitting at Natasha's desk, the only thing in the room that wasn't decorated in neon colors. Even Natasha's bed had bright pillows, sheets, and comforter.

"You're stuck in a dead end alley, surrounded by three lackeys of the villain your hero is trying to fight a mile away. How do you escape?" Michelle asked. They were taking turns reading the problems aloud, and they all did their best to answer them. It went much faster that way. They were already about half done.

"You don't," Liam snorted. "You can't fly, you're a sidekick... there's no way to escape unless you climb the walls, and you can't do that, either."

"You can't?" Natasha asked, curiously.

"Nope," Liam said glumly. "Being able to climb any kind of wall with just your bare hands qualifies you for hero class."

"Wait... who says it has to be with your bare hands?" Leah asked thoughtfully.

"What are you thinking?" Michelle asked, looking at Leah. Despite the fact that she had grown up with the least super hero influence, Leah had answered more questions than anyone else, so she trusted her to have a good idea of how to solve the problem.

"Well, what about those belts we've got in class?" Leah asked, getting excited. "They've got the grapple hooks on them, right? Hook one of those to the top of a building, pull yourself up, and presto... you can escape over the roof!"

Michelle grinned. "Yes! Leah, you're a genius..." Leah shrugged and shook her head. She wasn't a genius... Smart, sure, but no genius.

They finished their homework in record time, and then Natasha went and got the Doritos and soda. Leah whistled. "Do you have chips and soda every week?" she asked, frowning thoughtfully. It would have to be expensive... No way could they do it _every_ week.

"Nah," Natasha said, smiling. "Only on special occasions. And since we've now got a fourth member of the nut club, as my dad calls it, this is a very special occasion indeed."

Leah grinned and grabbed the Pepsi. "Amen to that!" She poured a cup and handed it to Liam, and then poured another for Michelle and Natasha. She handed them over, and then got a cup for herself. They all clinked glasses, and Leah grinned hugely as they sipped. Friends. Permanent, real friends she wouldn't have to lie to. Finally.

"I also got a movie, and mom said we could take her TV and bring it in here if we want. Or, we could go downstairs and smell my mother cooking." Natasha looked around at them, waiting for a response. Michelle and Liam just looked at one another and shrugged. They didn't seem to be about to say anything, so Leah took it upon herself.

"I say we go downstairs. Less work, and I wouldn't mind smelling her cooking, to be honest..." Leah trailed off and grinned. Natasha grinned back, and Liam and Michelle nodded agreeably. "Downstairs it is!" Leah said, grabbing the soda by the mouth and walked over to Natasha's door in a good imitation of Jack Sparrow. The other three trailed after her, laughing.

"The soda's gone," Leah said, moving to lean against the hallway wall. "Why is the soda always gone?" She got up, swaying dramatically, and let an "Aaaah," of understanding. "That's why."

Natasha giggled, and Liam moved up and nudged Leah gently with his elbow. She pretended to stumble, and then actually did trip and fall down on her butt. She blinked in surprise, and Liam, Michelle, and Natasha blinked back at her for a second before they burst out laughing.

"You look funny," Michelle told Leah. "I bet you didn't see that coming, did you?" Leah's eyes narrowed, and she used her elbows to drag herself, stomach on the floor, over to Liam. She stared at his ankle for a minute, and then carefully sank her teeth into it. Liam's response was automatic. With a clatter, a small, carved wooden penguin fell on its' side. Leah reared back quickly and stared at the penguin in horror.

Seeing her face, Natasha and Michelle burst into laughter again. "You should see your face!" Natasha said through her laughter.

Leah looked at her, her blue eyes wide and childlike. "I didn't mean to hurt him," she said guiltily. "I was just joking."

"Oh, he's not hurt," Natasha said, waving a hand dismissively. "He just shape shifted because he wanted to scare you. And it worked!"

Leah picked Liam up, still looking guilty. "Are you okay?" she asked the wooden penguin, staring at it. "Can he hear me when he's like this?" she asked Natasha, and tapped the penguin gently with a finger.

It immediately started to grow, and Leah dropped it in shock. Small sparks of lightning spat from her hands as they curled into fists in automatic self defense, and Leah stared at the wooden penguin as it turned back into Liam.

"Jesus, you scared me," he admitted, scratching his head.

Leah blinked. "That was freaky," she admitted. "Can you hear me when you shape shift?"

Liam nodded. "Yeah."

Leah shook her head. "That must come in handy."

Natasha glared at Liam jokingly. "Yeah, especially when he wants to listen in on a conversation that's none of his business so that he can laugh about it afterwards."

"Well, I didn't know you were going to say you thought Ethan was cute, did I?" Liam defended himself. "Besides, it is funny. He's shorter than you are!"

Michelle frowned. "So?"

Natasha rolled her eyes, and Leah cocked her head at Natasha. "Do you really think he's cute?" Natasha shrugged, looking embarrassed. Leah let out a little chuckle. "That's so cute," she commented.

Liam rolled his eyes. "I still think he's too short."

Michelle gave Liam a disgusted look. "You can't be too short for someone," she said, her tone of voice adding a silent _duh_. "If they're in love, let them be in love. Who they are, what they look like... it doesn't matter."

Leah raised her eyebrows, but Natasha beat her to saying something. "I'm not in love!" she protested. "I just think he's cute!"

Leah smirked. "Such protest," she said, even though she highly doubted that they _were_ in love. "It makes me think you have something to hide..." She raised her eyebrows, and if Natasha weren't black, she definitely would have blushed. "Oh, we're just teasing," Leah assured her. "If I ever say somebody is cute, feel free to make fun of me without mercy!"

Natasha and Michelle looked at each other and laughed evilly. Leah's smile dropped off her face. "I take it back!" she said quickly, but it was too late, and Liam said as much.

"It's too late, Leah. You're doomed to a life of eternal torment if they ever find out you like someone..."

Leah shrugged. "I'm sure I'll survive," she said casually. "So are we going to watch that movie, or what? What is it, anyway?"

Natasha smiled craftily. "Well, I was going to get Dogma, but it's rated R... so I got She's the Man instead!" She grinned happily, and Michelle laughed.

"What's it about? I've heard of it, but I don't know what it's about..." Leah said uncertainly.

"It's a chick flick," Liam groaned. "A total frigging chick flick... why couldn't you get a _good_ movie?" he added pleadingly.

"She's the Man is a good movie!" Natasha said indignantly. "I love it!"

"I know," Liam said in a horrified voice. "You've seen it like three times!"

"I love it," Michelle said. "It is a total chick flick, Liam is right, but..."

"You just thinking Channing Tatum is hot," Liam muttered sulkily under his breath. Michelle pulled an exaggeratedly thoughtful face, and then nodded, grinning mischievously. Liam rolled his eyes and glared at the ceiling. "I hate that movie," he growled.

"Well, I love it," Natasha said. "Besides, don't deny you think that the girl who plays Olivia is hot..."

Liam smiled sheepishly, and Leah snickered. "Hypocrite," she accused, smirking.

Liam shrugged. "Maybe so. But it isn't even that good of a movie."

"Which is why I caught you outside, trying to do that thing with the soccer ball, the day after we watched it for the first time." Natasha laughed when Liam flushed, and Leah chuckled and shook her head.

"No way!" Michelle exclaimed, looking shocked. "Did you do it?"

"Nah, he fell on his face," Natasha said, and laughed.

"I did not!" Liam protested indignantly. "And anyway, I can sort of do it now."

"Yeah right," Natasha scoffed.

"I can," Liam said, determined to show them. Leah laughed at the stubborn look on his face, and Michelle shook her head at Natasha. "I'll prove it," Liam said triumphantly.

Natasha raised her eyebrows. She hadn't expected that. "Okay," she said after a minute. "Show us. But if you can't do it on at least the third try, you don't get to say one more word about She's the Man. Deal?"

Liam nodded enthusiastically. "Deal," he said smugly. "Now prepare to eat your words." Natasha went and grabbed a soccer ball and tossed it to Liam, who caught it and squeezed it gently. He nodded in approval, and they all headed for Natasha's back yard.

Leah followed after Natasha and Liam, and Michelle walked beside her. "Do you think he can really do it?" Leah asked Michelle curiously.

Michelle thought about it for a second. "You know, I don't know," she said finally. "He never really says he's going to do something unless he means it, but it looked awfully hard, jumping up and kicking the ball while you're in the air like that... I just hope he didn't do it once and think he can do it every time from then on, because that's not going to happen."

"Hm," Leah said, and shrugged. She doubted Liam would be that dumb, but they were about to find out. Hopefully, he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

He didn't. Leah's jaw dropped when she saw him jump up in the air and kick the ball, and Michelle and Natasha both cheered loudly. "See," he said proudly. "I told you I can do it. Um- where's the ball?"

Leah laughed. "You kicked it out into the front yard, I think."

"That is so cool!" Michelle said enthusiastically. "You have to teach me how to do that!"

Liam grinned proudly, and Leah shook her head. She could tell his ego was going to be the size of Texas for weeks now. "I'll go get the ball..."

**I'm sorry it took so long for me to update this. I don't have an excuse, I was just being lazy, because honestly, I've had this chapter pretty much done for a couple months.**

**You should thank Tinuel for lighting the fire under my ass that made me update (although everyone who reviewed deserves a huge thanks and an equally huge hug). She (I really hope you're not a guy...) wrote a really nice review, and I realized that I really needed to update. So here it is!**


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